Ruperts Land Girls School - Eagle Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

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Ruperfs Land College Magazine . ' lately, we gratefully remember his care and kindness during some anxious years and are glad he has allowed us to add his picture to our Magazine gallery. Since we last went to press, in 1915, innumerable changes have taken place in the lives of the College' staff and of girls thenin attendance or just leaving us. It is not possible to mention all of these, from Miss Dalton herself, whom the news of the war brought home to England from Japan, to leave again later for Syria, down to the little First-Formers, whose fathers wrote brief messages to them from France. You will find some of the more peaceful changes of last year set down in the Chronicle, but I should like to dwell rather upon the names of those who, in the midst of change, remain unchanged -our constant, steady friends of the Advisory Board, who have now delegated some of their practical duties to the new Ladies' Board, and colleagues on the scholastic and domestic staff who have helped us to keep the School going through some sunshine and many clouds. Among many of these the names of Miss Crampton, now Mrs. Macgachen, Miss Harding over in England, Miss Horsman in Vancouver, and Miss Hold- itch, happily still with us, come at once to mind, while no one who has ever lived within our walls can forget our daily and constant friend downstairs, whose candy pies still make glad the hearts of Juniors. QNO one but Lizzie has ever had a poetic tribute in these columns repeated by request !J It is only now after the hurrying years behind, that we find ourselves able to measure and weigh some of the results of these years. Most School people, like myself, think that we have sacrificed much in quality to quantity-which means that we are more concerned to accomplish a great deal than to do less both greatly and well. Can you girls help to put this right? Our great Dominion, with its scanty population, scattered over so many thousands of square miles, offers so many oppor- tunities of work and service that later on you may be puzzled to know which path to follow, which road to choose. To be successful in any, make sure that you can do something really well, that your hand and eye and brain are trained and accurate as well as quick. Why else do you suppose that we toil with you so many hours over subjects which not even the teacher can be supposed to enjoy perpetually, unless for this one aim-that Canada may have wiser and more capable citi- zens in the good years that are coming? Land of our birth, we pledge to thee Our love and toil in the years to be are favourite words as you sing them at morning prayers, but I wonder sometimes how far the love and toil are shown in the 8 4

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Quperfa Eanh Qlnllrgv flliagaginr Vol. VII. MAY. l92l No. I. PRINCIPAL'S LETTER Rupert's Land College, April 20th, 1921. My Dear Girls,- A letter seems somewhat unnecessary to those of you whom I meet day by day, but to those who have left our walls it will have more meaning, and in the years to come, when you look back through these pages from your School days, it will remind you of' thoughts and plans and hopes then happily fulfilled. r First, let me say how glad I am to see the Magazine, which diedout suddenly in the first year of the war, rising from its ashes after six years. For the Chronicle alone it is worth keeping up, and the former numbers set a standard which I hope will be maintained and raised by every new issue. It is not possible to trace the course of the six years behind us, years which have changed the map of Europe, and the fate of nations, as well as of so many individual lives. Those of you who have been at School during all those years will realize later what a great gulf is set between then 'and now, and how the time machine has whirled us round the dial of history till we have to struggle for balance and reckoning. Of the great momentous changes I must not write, but some otherscome to mind as I think over the story of our own School. For one, we have changed our name, and in some measure our constitution, since we were affiliated to St. John's College as a Diocesan School. The new name is still hard for the older generation to remember, but it links us up with the history of this Western Province, long before John West, even, came to preach the Gospel to white and red men at the invita- tion of the Great Company. As the name of the Diocese, too, it brings us into closer touch with our branch of the Church, and with our honoured President, the Archbishop, whose interest in and support of the College have been so unwavering. The frontispiece reminds us of another change brought about by the years. Mr. Struthers, who succeeded Col. Rowley as Hon. Secretary-Treasurer of the School, found himself com- pelled, after many years of devotion to our interests, to resign office, not long before the subsequent affiliation with St. J ohn's. Though his health has not allowed many visits to the College . ' 7 -

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Rupert's Land College Magazine working hours of that very morning, or how often they are postponed to a rosy, distant future. Each one of you would be very properly indignant if accused of not loving Canada, but does your love lead you to such practical results as writing well and spelling well, learning well and drilling well, thinking earnestly and speaking gently, all for Canada? Are the head, heart and hand which you promise to her service being trained and developed by your own patience and care, or merely by the constant driving of your teachers. Does your love for Canada ever make you give up amusements that clash with your work? - Girls naturally think a good deal, sometimes more than is wholesome, about their appearance and dress and the impres- sion that these make on others. These things are important, for they reveal your personality and express it. But if you stop at dress and appearance, as so many do, in a more or less futile attempt to imitate a droll little mannequin in Vogue, you have learnt only the A. B. C. of what girls and women have been compiling through the ages-the Manual of Charm. A shrill voice and careless pronunciation can kill the effect of your pretty dress and marcel wave in just one minute, as far as a trained ear and judgment are concerned. Nervous, rest- less movements, the betrayalon your face of your lack of in- terest in those to whom you are speaking, and the repetition of the empty slang phrase of the moment-all these reveal you at your worst, and no elaborate dressing hides their ugliness. They are just as displeasing as dirty fingernails, or faces plas- tered with pink and white calcimine-as outward, visible signs of a grace that is missing in you, the sense of refinement and beauty of soul. And the only charm that wears and lasts and shows itself in unfailing courtesy and good taste, the charm that draws friends and lovers in youth and worshippers in old age, springs from the heart. The rainbow colours of the diamond, the glow of the ruby, come from within, and are not lent to it by the stonecutter's labour and polish. Can you not sweeten and refine your voice and manners-your heart as well as your head--for Canada? She deserves the bestg can you give it? What are you reading, what are you writing, outside the schoolroom, for Canada? Do your letters, sent home and to your friends, show you at your best? Are they bright and well written, accurate and well expressed, written, in short, to please and interest those who receive them? More than one mother of my acquaintance has precious bundles, tied up, where the faded ink tells a happy, comical tale of ups and downs and a merry heart, that bring a smile or sigh to one's lips- in the reading. Are your letters worth tying up for the days to come, or do they tell a tale of selfish repining, lack of 9